A streetside glimpse of India from Bangalore - no paid news, no lobbying, no plants, no stringing along - just pure viewpoints. My own political education. Satire Alert (At times)!
Because, nothing is permanent, only interim!

Monday, February 13, 2006

A few weeks back, I had blogged about Peace and violence at a micro level, about how the threat of violence (and sometimes, its actual happening) brought about "action". As I thought about it and the recent controversy surrounding Danish cartoons, I cant help but think that nation states are succumbing to the threat of violence.

A few months (or was it years, nobody remembers) back, as Ankita points out, the Buddhas of Bamiyan were destroyed by radical Islamists in Afghanistan. Then, Buddhists did not go on the rampage destroying embassies of Muslim countries or sending death threats or taking our processions that ended in violence. Were any apologies demanded? or issued? I think not. Sadness and anger was "expressed" in official comminiques.

To me (and I am sure to most of those with a positive IQ), such an act hurts a thousand times more than publishing a few cartoons in one corner of the world in a newspaper whose circulation was at best limited to a few million. Yet, it has resulted in protests all over the globe, death threats, deaths, burning embassies, burning flags, throwing eggs and what not. Danish goods have been boycotted (by Saudi of all countries which outlaws all religions other than that of Islam, much less tolerates them) for the action of a newspaper in Denmark. Other countries are busy trying to pacify the religion of peace and have reacted with apologies, "deep concern" and what not.

This is what the so called religion of peace has achieved. For every slight, real or imagined, the followers react with violence. Violence of this nature is rarely spontaneous. Especially for cartoons published in October, violence in January cannot be spontaneous, it is organized crime and should be tackled as such.

But I digress. Speak softly and carry a big stick, is a quote attributed to Teddy Roosevelt. But if what has happened in the example of the cartoons has shown (and shown many times before that in many countries) Speaking very loudly and beating people with a big stick works. All it shows is that, violence, sadly, is rewarding at many levels.